Hard times for UK business

Worsening economic conditions have helped to send almost 33,000 businesses in England, Wales and Scotland to the wall so far this year, according to figures released today.

Business information company D&B said the tally of company collapses between January and September was the highest for three years, and 7% up on 2001.

This quarter there were 11,088 business failures, up 5.5% on the same period last year.

The highest increase (15.8%) was in the West Midlands where the number of failures this quarter (993) was the biggest increase since the recession in 1992.

Company liquidations have also increased by nearly a third compared with the same time last year.